Mad Science Monday, 2/21/2011

Sometime around the time it came out in 1996, I saw Project Grizzly, the documentary about Canadian inventor and awesomely crazy person Troy Hurtubise. Troy doesn't have a whole lot of scientific training, so he didn't immediately come to mind when I started Mad Science Monday... but I think he might really be a mad scientist (or at least a mad engineer with thoughts of mad science). I can't remember the exact quote, but he has a monologue in the doc about how his suit will let NASA study hibernating bears, which they can't do because the bears might wake up and rip the researchers to shreds. That argument made all of the madness he expresses in the rest of the doc, trying to build his bear-proof suit, seem worthwhile.Today's research isn't as mad as Troy, but it enhances his madness...

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Posted in: biology,mad science

Mad Science Monday, 2/14/2011

Happy Valentine's Day! I almost didn't get a post up today, but then I saw the perfect article to fit the holiday. Without further ado, I give you:Mad Reference! "Extreme Aggression in Male Squid Induced by a β-MSP-like Pheromone." Hanlon RT, et al. Current Biology (online) February 10, 2011 (via National Geographic). Pheremones that induce aggression in a phallic animal during mating? Sounds like a Valentine's Day Mad Science Monday to me!Mad Background and Observations! When longfin squid (Loligo pealeii) get together to breed, the females lay egg sacs. The males rush in and touch these sacs, and go into full-on pon farr rage.Mad Hypothesis! A protein in the eggs acts as a pheremone, sending the males into this rage. Even without females present, this pheremone would...

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Posted in: biology,mad science

Mad Science Monday, 2/7/2011

Ok, I really like writing these things. I think I'll try to do this weekly again.Mad Reference: Josh Bongard. "Morphological change in machines accelerates the evolution of robust behavior." Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. January 25, 2011 vol. 108 no. 4 1234-1239. (abstract)A lot of my random reads come from "cool" via Recommendations, a Google Reader list of things that other people have shared. As far as I can tell, this one mostly made that list because the title was cool, but the research is pretty neat.Mad Background: Evolutionary algorithms are just about my very favoritest of things. Basically, computer scientists, inspired by the simplicity and elegance of biological evolution, have started using reproduction (of code fragments), mutation (of the specifics...

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Posted in: biology,evolutionary algorithms,mad science,robots,software